Two important memes have broken out: 1. Obama is weak.
2. Its cool to bring your assault rifle to Presidential speaking events. Everyone is going to be doing it.
Krugman: On the issue of health care itself, the inspiring figure progressives thought they had elected comes across, far too often, as a dry technocrat who talks of “bending the curve” but has only recently begun to make the moral case for reform... Meanwhile, on such fraught questions as torture and indefinite detention, the president has dismayed progressives with his reluctance to challenge or change Bush administration policy. And then there’s the matter of the banks. I don’t know if administration officials realize just how much damage they’ve done themselves with their kid-gloves treatment of the financial industry, just how badly the spectacle of government supported institutions paying giant bonuses is playing.
For the lastest on government supported institutions see AIG. Benmosche told employees that he “had the luxury to say to the government, I’m not going to rush to do this. I’m appalled at how much pressure has been put on all of you to just sell it no matter what, because the Fed wants out, or the Treasury wants out. If they want out in a hurry, they shouldn’t have come in in the first place.”
These are the same people who can never, ever pay back all the money they owe tax payers: Let’s not mince words: AIG is on the hook for $182.5 billion dollars to the taxpayers. And it high-grade, enzyme-free manure to pretend this is going to be repaid anytime soon.
The people who run the government are incompetent, the people who run corporate America are incompetent, and the people who run the media are incompetent. On the later point, intentionally creating a nation wide "bring you assault rifle to protest rallies" fad is the most blatantly irresponsible thing that I have ever seen the national media do. If you don't want to encourage people to do something, you shouldn't put a picture of someone doing it above the fold in your nationally distributed media outlet, you idiots! This is all going no where good just about as fast as it can. Op-Ed Columnist - Obama’s Trust Problem - NYTimes.com | 
